Lance of Passion
, carried by Murgen ]] The Lance of Passion was centuries-old artifact that the Black Company has carried since the group's creation in Khatovar. It was a wooden pole 12 feet (3.6 meters) in length, with a spearhead of about 18 inches (45 cm). The Lance supported the Black Company standard, which hung from a crosspiece. The role of standard-bearer was a highly-respected position within the Company. Abilities Shadowgate key The spearhead of the Lance was actually a shadowgate key, which, like the golden pickax, allowed its bearer a safe passage through the glittering plain. It was a repellent against shadows, the murderous entities which infested the Plain. When carried outside the plain, the Lance had a short-range shadow-repellent effect. But on the plain, it interacted with the sensitive sorcery native to that place and created a much larger barrier against shadows. All of these functionalities were utterly forgotten by the Company for hundreds of years, until the events of the Books of Glittering Stone. As a weapon The spearhead was also an incredibly effective weapon when used against sorcerers. Wounds inflicted by it delivered horrible, debilitating magic. The standard-bearer Murgen – unaware of its true power – used it against Lisa Daele Bowalk the forvalaka and two different Shadowmasters (Stormshadow and Moonshadow) to great effect in ''Shadow Games. Later, in She Is the Darkness, Croaker would stab the Howler with the Lance. Howler suffered excruciating agony and was barely able to escape, and his ally Longshadow spent almost a week, without sleep, removing the dangerous sorcery from Howler's body. It would finally be used by Goblin against the entity Kina in Water Sleeps. Mythic origins According to legend, there were eight such spears and each of the Free Companies of Khatovar were given one. The metal spearheads were said to have been forged from the sword of a demon king devoured by Kina. The shafts of the lances were also legendary. The myths held that they were created from body parts of various deities (including bones from Kina herself), and some were created from the wood of a tree which imprisoned a goddess. The brothers of the Black Company had forgotten that they possessed such a powerful artifact. It was just used as a shaft for their banner, of which there were at least two. ''The White Rose'' The Lance of Passion was carried by Murgen, as he was the Company's standard-bearer during The White Rose. ''Shadow Games'' Murgen used the spearhead of the Lance to inflict agonizing wounds on both Stormshadow and Lisa Daele Bowalk the forvalaka during the first night of the Battle of Dejagore. The next day, outside the city, he impaled Moonshadow with it during the Company's elephant charge. When the battle turned against the Company, he discarded the Lance to put on Croaker's Widowmaker suit of armor in an attempt to stop the tide of fleeing Taglian soldiers. It was spirited away by Soulcatcher and her minion Frogface, still with Moonshadow impaled upon it. ''Dreams of Steel'' Soulcatcher returned the Lance to Croaker during his captivity with her at the seasonally-vacant temple of the Stranglers in the Grove of Doom. He carried it with him in Taglios while he was disguised as a Shadar bodyguard of Soulcatcher, who was herself masquerading as her sister Lady. When they were attacked by the Howler (who had been sent by Longshadow to kidnap Lady), Croaker inflicted wounds on the Howler with the Lance. Longshadow spent almost an entire week, without stopping, removing the agonizing sorcery from his ally's body. ''She Is the Darkness'' During the Battle of Lake Tanji, the Lance of Passion unexpectedly repelled a killer shadow that was on the verge of killing Murgen the standard-bearer: This was some of the earliest evidence noted by the Company that the Lance was more than simply a mundane relic. (As a shadowgate key, it generated a shadow-proof field.) After the Shadowmaster wars ended, the Lance was finally used for its original purpose: as a shadowgate key. Carried by Murgen alongside Croaker, Lady, and a procession of about 50 others, including Black Company men, Nyueng Bao bodyguards, and even a few of their prisoners (Soulcatcher, the Howler, Longshadow, and Lisa Daele Bowalk), they left the homeworld and entered the glittering plain. After they took it to the fortress with no name, Soulcatcher sprang her trap, and the Lance was sealed along with Murgen and the rest of the Captured in the cave of the ancients. For the next 15 years, the mysterious Lancehead "seemed to whisper and murmur to itself" as it lay across Murgen's lap. It would never leave the nameless fortress. ''Water Sleeps'' Once the Captured were rescued 15 years after their imprisonment, the Company found Kina's grave-like chamber. She attacked them with dangerous wisps of smoke-like magic from her nostrils. Goblin fought back desperately with the Lance, penetrating her upper body with it to buy time for Sleepy, Tobo, Suvrin, and Master Santaraksita to escape. ''Soldiers Live'' The wooden pole of the Lance was incinerated after Goblin’s struggle with Kina, but the spearhead remained inside Kina's body. According to Goblin, Kina slowly migrated the spearhead through her flesh to her womb (presumably to expel it). The spearhead would have been disintegrated during Goblin's final attack on Kina in Soldiers Live. Individuals attacked with the Lance This is a list of identified individuals in the Annals who were attacked with the Lance. Category:Objects Category:Weapons Category:Magical artifacts Category:Black Company Relics